George-Louis Le Rouge (fl. 1741-79) was a French cartographer and publisher. He also served as the "Ingenieur Géographe du Roi" in France. His 1778 atlas, "Atlas Américain Septentrional" was "one of the best French collections of North American maps" at the time of publication. His other works include "Atlas General" (1741-62), "Recueil des Cartes Nouvelles (1742), "Guerre en Europe (1743), "Atlas Portatif" (1748), and Recueil des Plans de l'Amerique Septentrional (1755) (Tooley, 389; Portinaro and Knirsch, 316).

Pierre Francois-Xavier de Charlevoix was a Jesuit missionary who was commissioned by France in 1720 to explore the area west of the Great Lakes in Canada. During his expedition he saw Niagara and Detroit. He also followed the Mississippi River south. He believed the Missouri River headed west and subscribed to the belief in the mythical Sea of the West. His memoirs of his travels are highly descriptive and though he wrote them in 1723, they were not published until 1744 (Howgego, 217).

Charles Marie de la Condamine was a French geographer and mathematician. In 1735, he was sent on an expedition to Peru to work determining distances between degrees of latitude. On his return, he explored parts of Brazil along the Amazon (Howgego, 583-4).

Alaska was first discovered and mapped by Russian explorers in the eighteenth century. Peter the Great sent out his Danish captain, Vitus Bering in 1728. Bering left from Kamchatka Peninsula and heading east but had little luck in finding land in America. In 1732, Mikhail Gvozdev saw the eastern coast of the Diomede Islands in what is now modern-day Bering Strait, prompting more exploration. In spring of 1741, the Second Kamchatka Expedition began in which Bering was able to explore the Aleutian Islands. During this expedition, Bering and his fellow commander, Aleksei Chirikov (or Tschirikov), attempted to explored the northwest coast of Alaska. Chirikov had little luck, however, landing at Baker Island and coasting north towards Baranof Island. After an exploration boat from his voyage did not return, he decided to return to Kamchatka. Bering's voyage went worse. He was able to explore a little further south and land at Kayak Island during which time the major naturalist and scientist, Georg Steller, hurriedly conducted research on the island. On his return to Kamchatka, Bering wrecked on what is now modern-day Bering Island and died during the crew's stay on the island. After nearly a year, the remaining crew was able to build a ship from the wreckage of the first ship and sail back to Kamchatka, arriving in September of 1742 (Hayes, 102-5).

This map is indicative of Tchirikow's exploration in 1741 and 1742 as well as expeditions by Charlevoix and La Condamine.

Source(s):

Hayes, Derek. "America Discovered: A Historical Atlas of North American Exploration. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 2004.

Portinaro, Pierluigi and Franco Knirsch. "The Cartography of North America 1500-1800." New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1987.